Of all the games that I played at New York University’s No Quarter exhibition, the one I most wanted to take home and play with a friend was There Shall Be Lancing. Granted, Killer Queen and Bennet Foddy's Speed Chess are a little too unwieldy to play in my small New York City apartment, But, the combat game by Sophie Houlden operates on a mechanically specific tension that keeps pulling you back. You can grab a version here if you ask nice.

Whether it’s a PC monitor or a smartphone display, indie game-makers tend to thrive on smaller…
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Houlden wasn’t able to attend this year’s No Quarter but I talked to NYU’s Charles Pratt—who puts together the annual event—about why he commissioned the game and the importance of getting hands-on exposure for new, independently developed works.